Vol. 454 No. 1
147 Mr. E. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social Welfare the position regarding a person (details supplied) in County Cork who has been asked to repay the supplementary welfare allowance awarded to him on 23 July 1993, for one week until his disability benefit claim had been processed. [10124/95]
Payment of supplementary welfare allowances may be made on an interim basis where a person is awaiting the determination of an application for a social welfare or a health board payment. The determination of applications for supplementary welfare allowance is a matter for each health board.
In this case the person in question applied to the Southern Health Board for supplementary welfare allowance while he was appealing a decision regarding his disability benefit. A payment of £149.80 was made on 23 July 1993. However the health board subsequently discovered that the person had an army pension of £583,49 per month and was not entitled to payment of supplementary welfare allowance at the full rate. Consequently the Southern Health Board has now asked the person in question to repay the amount overpaid. He is currently in receipt of £150.40 per week disability benefit and also is in receipt of this army pension. The overpayment amounts to £134.65 which can be repaid in instalments.
149 Mr. S. Brennan asked the Minister for Social Welfare his views on the legislative anomaly which forces disabled people on to disability or invalidity payments when they are able and willing to work part-time but do not have social welfare cover for the days not worked due to expiry of unemployment benefit and non-eligibility for unemployment assistance; his further views on whether the removal of this anomaly would be therapeutic for the people involved and gainful for the Exchequer; if he intends to review the anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10402/95]
The conditions for receipt of unemployment payments from my Department require applicants to be capable of, available for and genuinely seeking work in respect of each day of unemployment. In addition, certain PRSI contribution conditions must be satisfied for receipt of unemployment benefit while applicants for unemployment assistance must satisfy a means test. Those conditions apply equally to people with or without disabilities.
Provision has also been made in legislation to deem a person to be available for employment on any day on which that person is undergoing a course of rehabilitation training provided by an organisation approved for that purpose by the Minister for Health.
Apart from unemployment payments, people with disabilities may also be eligible for disability benefit or invalidity pension subject to satisfying the relevant conditions. In general, a recipient of disability benefit or invalidity pension is precluded from engaging in work whether on his or her own account or on behalf of another person. Such a recipient may, however, be exempt from the operation of the rules relating to work if he or she is engaged in part-time work in the nature of rehabilitation or occupational therapy and in that regard there is no restriction on earnings. These exemptions are issued only on the advise of the Department's chief medical adviser.
If the Deputy has a particular case in mind, perhaps he would let me have the details and I will have the matter examined.
